


Need

by storiesfortravellers



Category: Graceland (TV)
Genre: Aftercare, BDSM, Community: kink_bingo, Dominance, Emotion Play, Emotional Manipulation, Kink Negotiation, Language Kink, Light Bondage, M/M, Service Top, Submission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-13
Updated: 2013-07-13
Packaged: 2017-12-19 08:32:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/881673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storiesfortravellers/pseuds/storiesfortravellers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mike asks Briggs to break him down and put him back together again. Dom!Briggs/Sub!Mike.</p><p>Written for Kink Bingo for the emotion play square.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Need

They talked about it beforehand. 

Apparently this was the one area in his life where Briggs didn’t like to scare you half to death before revealing that he could be trusted after all. 

Mike was relieved, truth be told. If there were going to do a scene together, Mike wanted to make sure they were both on the same page ahead of time.

It had started out with little winks and jokes about how Mike would get a spanking if he made another mistake. Typical Briggs bullshit where you didn’t know if he was flirting with you or just fucking with your head. 

Eventually, Mike managed to hear enough gossip about Briggs to figure out that Briggs was at least as into dominance and submission as Mike was. At least. He even managed to get a look at Briggs’ browser history to confirm.

So then Mike figured out how to get what he wanted.

He responded happily instead of warily when Briggs flirted, or just even when he gave off a dominant vibe, which was fairly often. He even threw out a few flirtatious comments of his own, so that Briggs could wonder about him for a change. Finally, he let Briggs overhear him ask a woman at the bar if she knew of a good place where a submissive guy could have some safe fun. 

Mike knew that there was no way Briggs would want someone in their house to get tied up alone by some stranger. Even if he weren’t into pretty much the same stuff that Mike was – which he was, Mike had found out – Mike knew that Briggs’ protective streak would come out.

It did. 

A couple of awkward conversations later, Mike was naked and on his knees, trying not to cry against Briggs’ thigh. 

Well worth the effort.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

“Tell me what you want,” Briggs had said.

“What do you want?” Mike responded.

“I want you to answer my question as honestly and completely as possible,” he said, making it clear he was already giving orders (not that him giving Mike orders was anything new).

“Are you a service top?” Mike asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes. And you are so very obviously a bossy bottom, so this is going to work out great.” He gave Mike a smile that was far too charming for his own good.

“‘Bossy bottom’ is an offensive term,” he joked. 

“Stop stalling. Tell me what you like.”

Mike swallowed, nervous suddenly. But he told him. Mike had been in relationships like this before, had had this conversation before. So he pushed forward.

Mike needed emotional play. Something purely physical wouldn’t do much for him. Humiliation was good – certain kinds only – and he liked being punished and forgiven. 

He didn’t like roleplay, not in the traditional sense. He wanted Briggs to be Briggs and himself to be himself. If Briggs yelled at him for being worthless, it had to be believable – he should talk about Mike’s real failings and flaws. If he said that Mike was a coward, he should berate him for his actual fears. 

“That could get a little dicey, Mike,” Briggs had said.

“I know. But… it works for me. Better than practically anything. And I can’t exactly… I mean do you know how hard it is find that when I can’t even tell anyone who I am?” Mike didn’t bother to hide the desperation in his voice. Briggs already knew exactly how much Mike needed him.

Briggs looked at him, though, trying to make a decision. 

“Look, not going to lie. The shit I’ve seen this week, I really need this. And I trust you, Briggs,” Mike said. “You can make it work.”

“And what if I make it work so well that it breaks you?” he answered, worry in his voice.

Mike paused. Finally, nervously, he said, “What’s the point of doing a scene if you’re not going to break me?”

It was a cliché, Mike knew: hurt me until I break, then put me back together. Make me utterly, terrifyingly dependent on you. The essence of a scene, really. 

But that’s what Mike needed right now. That’s what would work for him.

Finally, Briggs nodded. He said he wanted to be whatever Mike needed, and he meant it.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

They try it.

Mike isn’t surprised that Briggs is good. _Really good._

He is surprised that he goes from emotional highs to lows, physical pain to pleasure and then back again, and the whole time he feels completely safe. 

It’s nothing like being on the job with Briggs. 

Briggs goes slow, tells Mike what he’s doing every step of the way. A gentle hand on the back of Mike’s neck, or gripping his hip to move him around. A blindfold, ice cubes. Ropes. 

Words. Not yelling. Briggs whispering in his ear, telling him he is too soft, too green, telling him he hasn’t earned the trust that everyone else in the house has. Saying that he’s not sure Mike won’t do something stupid and get his head blown off one of these days, saying they’d all be better off if they locked Mike in his little room and left them there. Promises that he’ll always be there to take care of him, that he’s worthless, that he’s precious, that he’s filthy, that he’s beautiful, that he’s weak, that he’s strong. 

Briggs manipulating his insecurities as if they were skin or lips or hair. Physical, emotional, pleasure, pain, back and forth until Mike is a quivering mess on the floor, begging Briggs for things he never even knew he wanted.

When they are done, when Mike is calm again, they curl up in Briggs’ bed, the heat of Briggs’ body surrounding him. Gentle strokes along his back until he is breathing normally. 

After a while, Briggs asks if he’s okay.

“This was perfect,” Mike says, his face nestled in Briggs’ neck. “Perfect.”

It was, for Mike. Better than any other scene he’s ever done.

That much was the truth. Whatever else he lied about, that was the truth. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~

( _Five weeks earlier_ )

“Briggs has narcissistic tendencies, but unlike many narcissists has great empathy for others,” the psychological consultant said.

“I don’t think appealing to his ego will work,” Mike said. He wasn’t sure why getting help from a profiler on how to approach Briggs was necessary. He was doing a decent job.

“He would see right through flattery,” the psychologist answered. “What he needs is to feel like other people need and trust him. Manage to do that, and he’ll put personal affection above his own need for secrecy and self-protection.”

“I’m pretty sure he doesn’t like needy.”

“Be reluctant to admit how much you need him.”

“Well, I should have that covered,” Mike said, rather grumpily, “He keeps saving my ass in the field, but I always go in thinking I don’t need him.”

“He’s a charismatic leader type, he thinks that everyone around him should be one of his followers. He thinks all of Graceland belongs to him. And it seems that many of his friends and coworkers seem happy to keep him up on this pedestal as well.”

“That sounds true enough,” Mike admitted, even if he did think it sounded a bit uncharitable.

“Convince him that you’re one of his. That you don’t know what you would do without him. He needs to feel like you’re willing to show weakness around him that you would never show to others. Then, he’ll trust you with everything. That’s the kind of man he is.”

“How exactly do I convince him of all that?” Mike asked.

“Whatever it takes,” the consultant said. “And Washington agrees.”

Mike nodded. He would just have to figure something out.


End file.
